"How to" make a pugio

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

(Post by me in another topic)

Original thickness of roman pugios blade are:

-Gravenvoeren pugio (Belgium) (Vanden Berghe, JRMES7, 1996, pag. 66): 8,9 mm. Tang type.

-Titelberg pugio (Luxembourg) (Vanden Berghe/ Simkins, JRMES 12/13, 2001/2002, 75/84): 4 mm at the midrib and only 2 mm at the rest. In fact, is so thin that it was originally distorted.

-Usk pugio (England) (Chapmann, A catalogue..., 2005, pág. 22 number 05): 5 mm.

-Loughor (England) (Chapmann, A catalogue..., 2005, pág. 22 number 06): 7 mm at the tang.

[Robert]

Wow, thanks. Is there a picture of the Titelberg pugio anywhere you could point me to, pls. :roll: What is it's date and is it a tang type "B"?

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Well, holidays it's over.

Let's turn to the hard work!

It's time to make the iron "skin" of the hilt. Sorry, but i don't have many pictures of that part.

First you have to cut with the jeweller's saw the iron following the pattern of the wooden hilt, adding some milimeters all around. My pattern is double, folded at the top of the pommel expansion.

We put it over the wooden part, and then put five rivets. For strength, i have used brass ones.

When the iron skin is firmly riveted its time to do some hammering. The secret it's to use that kind of hammer:



It doesn't mark so much the iron. We hammer without too much force, to avoid "disasters", but firmly and following the wooden carving.

Now it's at the middle of that hammering:



To be continued... :wink:

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Nice Pugio Cezar!

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Thanks, Gaius!

Now we make some more blows with the hammer to let the iron skin adapt to the wood.

After some hard work we get that:


It's time to file it first and then make smoother with the sandpaper:

The file make clearer the triangular section of the hilt:

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Now, how to make the decoration:

First you have to paint a reference with a permanent pen:



Then, make the channels for the inlay with a dremel. First, try with a iron plate. It's hard to control the direction of the rotating head, and is diferent to do a line in the sense of the rotation, or versus that direction.


That's the engraving, finished.



It has some faults... It's dificult to do...

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

And finally, do the blackening of the iron and the silver inlay, as i have explain before for the sheath.

Put 3 decortive rivets at the top, and the pugio it's yet finished.

GAME OVER!!!

[Crispvs]

VERY nice Cesar! Well done!

A laud point from me, your rather envious fellow pugiophile (I still have a long way to go on mine).

Again, well done, and thank you for taking the time to photograph each step of the process.


Crispvs

[Robert Vermaat]

Very very nice...

[GALLA PLACIDIA]

Great, great job Avitianus
laud for you
Bravo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Peroni]

Laudes indeed Cesar!

Beautiful job!

[aitor iriarte]

Good work Cesar. Laus for you!

Aitor

[Magnus]

Great Job Caesar! So how many man hours total do you figure?

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Thanks, all!

Crispus:

What's your actual pugio? Pictures? And what pugio are you triyn to make? If you want some help to finish it, here i am.

Magnus:

I don't know exactly how many hours i have spend. You have to add a lot of time making the pictures, with the help of Galla Placidia, posting it in photobucket and then making the RAT posts.

But the final result probably deserves it.

So, don't hesitate more and go for make your own pugio!

[Magnus]

Hehehe, I don't know man! Your's turned out pretty nice, but I don't know if I have the patience for such work. I think it's the deepeeka one for me!